Free WordPress Themes for Churches in 2026
By Mark Fail · · Updated
A church website has three jobs most business sites never face. It has to put last Sunday's sermon online by Monday and take a tithe from someone who no longer carries cash. It also has to stay editable by whichever volunteer drew the short straw this year.
A free WordPress theme can handle the look of all that. On its own it handles very little of the rest, and most "free church theme" lists skip over that gap.
We checked four free themes from WordPress.org and two paid ones on 28 September 2026. We opened each demo and downloaded the free themes to see which church features are real and which are only headings in a pattern. We also looked at the free plugins that fill the gaps, including one sermon plugin you should now avoid. Figures and sources are listed at the end.
Comparison table: six church themes at a glance
| Theme | Price | Editing | Sermons | Giving | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kadence + Church starter | Free | Block editor, Kadence Blocks | Blog category | GiveWP set up for you | Most small churches |
| Church FSE | Free | Site Editor | Static patterns | Button only | A quick brochure site |
| Rejoice | Free | Site Editor | None | Button only | A traditional look |
| FSE Church | Free | Site Editor | None | Button only | Service times up front |
| Maranatha | $129 a year | Block editor | Full archive | Links to your provider | Sermons done properly |
| Native Church | $89 | Elementor or SiteOrigin | Full archive | Causes and donations | Large churches |
Kadence with the free Church starter template
Kadence is a general-purpose theme. Even so, it did more church work than any of the dedicated free themes. Its Church starter template is free, and the template library marks it as not Pro. Importing it installs three plugins, which are Kadence Blocks, GiveWP and The Events Calendar.
It also imports a sample GiveWP donation form. That means the Donate button in the header leads to a working giving page, with donor dashboard and confirmation pages already built. The other pages it creates are Services, About, Events, Our Locations and Contact.
Sermons are the weak spot. The "Past Messages" menu item is just blog posts in a category. The homepage section called "Join the Sunday Live Stream" has a button that points to "#" until you paste in your own link.
For a small church that posts a video each week, that is enough. Kadence has 500,000+ active installs and a 4.9 rating from 455 reviews on WordPress.org, and was last updated on 24 July 2026.
Pros
- Giving and an events calendar are working after one import
- Edited in the normal block editor, with the header and footer in the Customizer
- A very large user base, so help is easy to find
- No paid tier needed for anything in this template
Cons
- Sermons are plain posts, with no speaker, series or scripture fields
- The live stream section needs your link each time the URL changes
- The demo has lorem ipsum text you must replace page by page
- Recurring gifts need GiveWP's paid add-on
Church FSE
Church FSE comes from Themeisle, the company behind Neve. Among church-only themes on WordPress.org updated in the last few years, it has the most installs. That is still a small number.
Inside the download there are 29 block patterns, including two called Sermons, one called Events, two for Ministries and one for a Bible verse. The listing also promises "a prayer request system", which we could not find anywhere in the theme files.
Those Sermons patterns are layouts you fill in by hand, with no archive behind them, so each new message means editing a page. One of its two reviewers liked the design but found the Front Page template replaced the content already on their homepage. Church FSE has 700+ active installs and a 4.5 rating from 2 reviews. Its last update was on 30 May 2025. That is 16 months ago, close to the point where we would stop recommending it.
Pros
- Church-specific patterns for ministries, events and a scripture verse
- Made by an established theme company
- No page builder to install
Cons
- No update since May 2025
- Sermons and events are static blocks, not lists that update themselves
- The Front Page template can overwrite an existing homepage
- The download is 4.9 MB, large for a block theme
Rejoice
Rejoice suits a church with an old building it wants to show off. The demo opens on a full-width nave photograph under a bar with social icons, an email and phone block, and a Donate Now button. It has 14 patterns. For a church the useful ones are Get Involved, Testimonials and a Video pattern where a recorded service or a YouTube stream can sit.
Cathedral is another free church theme on WordPress.org, listed under a different author name. When we compared the downloads, it turned out to share the same code as Rejoice, with a few different patterns.
Cathedral swaps the video block for Our Team and a counter, so pick whichever set of patterns you need. Rejoice has 200+ active installs and no reviews yet. It needs PHP 8.0 and WordPress 6.8, and was last updated on 19 August 2026.
Pros
- Updated in August 2026 and built for WordPress 6.8 or later
- A ready video section for a service recording
- Contact details and giving sit in the header on every page
Cons
- No sermon, event or staff features beyond static blocks
- No reviews to judge it by
- Older hosting on PHP 7 will not run it
FSE Church
FSE Church, by Themes Cart, has one feature the others lack. Among its patterns is a service times section, and that is usually the first thing a new visitor looks for. The demo hero carries two buttons, Request Help and Donate Now, over a photo slider, with gallery, services and latest-post sections below it. It is the most recently updated theme here.
The free version is also an advert for the paid one. Its changelog records "Added Buy Now Button in navigation", and that yellow button sits in the demo menu between Contact and Donate Now. You will want to remove it before launch.
FSE Church has 300+ active installs and no reviews, and was last updated on 19 September 2026.
Pros
- A service times pattern for newcomers
- Updated nine days before we checked
- Cart and checkout templates if you sell books or event tickets through WooCommerce
Cons
- A Buy Now button for the paid version is in the menu
- Changelog entries such as "Enhanced Theme Stability" say little
- No sermon or staff patterns
Maranatha (churchthemes.com)
This is the first paid option, and the difference shows as soon as the menu loads. Sermons, Events and Ministries are real sections here, with content behind them. Maranatha is built on the Church Content plugin. It stores sermons with audio, video, topics, books of the Bible, series and speakers, and the video can be an upload or come from YouTube and Vimeo. Staff, locations and events have their own records too.
The demo homepage leads with the service time and three circles for Sunday Services, What to Expect and a video version.
You do not buy Maranatha alone. The cheapest plan gives you every churchthemes.com theme and the Church Content plugin for one site. Sermon podcasting and recurring events need Church Content Pro, which is in the $199 plan. Giving goes through an outside provider you link to. The Starter plan is $129 a year with a 45-day money-back guarantee, and the company posted theme updates for WordPress 7 on 27 May 2026.
Pros
- Sermons filed by series, speaker, topic and book
- Content stays in the plugin if you change to another churchthemes.com theme
- Guides and video walkthroughs written for church volunteers
Cons
- A yearly fee, not a one-off purchase
- Podcasting and repeating events cost $70 a year more
- No built-in giving, so you need a separate provider
Native Church
Native Church is a large theme for a large church. Its demo menu runs Home, Pages, Mega Menu, Events, Sermons, Gallery, Blog, Shop and Causes, with Plan Your Visit, Calendar and Donate Now above it. Sermons run on the author's own iSermons plugin with audio, video and podcast support. Events run on their Eventer plugin, with recurring dates and Google Calendar, and Causes handles fundraising appeals.
All of that means several plugins to keep updated, plus Slider Revolution. Pages are built in Elementor or SiteOrigin, which is more than most volunteers want to learn.
The countdown on the demo homepage read zero days, so an "upcoming event" box clearly needs someone to keep it filled. It costs $89 and has 8,906 sales with a 4.68 rating from 370 reviews on ThemeForest. It was last updated on 20 March 2026.
Pros
- Sermons, events, causes and a shop in one theme
- The longest track record in this list, with thousands of sales
- Recurring events and Google Calendar support
Cons
- Many bundled plugins, each one tied to this theme
- Page builder editing is harder for occasional volunteers
- One site per Regular licence
The free plugins that do the church work
Every free theme above needs plugins for the parts churches care about most.
For sermons, the name you will see in older tutorials is Sermon Manager. WordPress.org closed it on 3 December 2025 for a security issue, and it can no longer be downloaded. People still post in its support forum about videos that stopped playing. If your church already runs it, plan a move.
Advanced Sermons is the maintained free option. It handles audio and video sermons, with filters by series, speaker, topic and book. It has 1,000+ installs and a 4.7 rating from 22 reviews, and was updated on 29 August 2026. Church Content from churchthemes.com has 4,000+ installs and a 4.9 rating from 49 reviews, but it needs a compatible theme to display anything.
GiveWP is the usual free choice for giving, with 100,000+ installs, Stripe and PayPal in the free plugin, and a 4.6 rating from 707 reviews. Its page warns that additional fees may apply for free users on Stripe, and recurring gifts are a paid add-on.
The Events Calendar has 600,000+ installs and gives you month, list and day views free. A weekly Bible study that repeats needs Events Calendar Pro, though, so you either pay or enter each date.
To publish sermons as a podcast, Seriously Simple Podcasting builds a feed Apple Podcasts and Spotify accept. It has 30,000+ installs and costs nothing if the audio files stay on your own hosting. For a livestream, pasting the YouTube link into an embed block works on any theme. Embed Plus for YouTube can find your channel's live stream automatically, but that part is in its Pro version.
Final Thoughts: which church theme should you use?
If you want free and have one evening, start with Kadence and its Church starter template. It is the only free option we checked where giving and an events calendar work straight after the import. Editing stays in the normal block editor that most volunteers have seen before. Add Advanced Sermons if you want sermons filed by series and speaker instead of as blog posts.
If the look matters more than the features, Rejoice or Cathedral will give you a traditional church homepage for nothing. FSE Church puts service times where visitors expect them.
Church FSE has the most church patterns of the dedicated themes, but its last update was in May 2025. We would treat it as a second choice until Themeisle updates it again.
If your church publishes a sermon every week and wants a searchable archive and a podcast without assembling five plugins, Maranatha is worth the yearly fee. The plan also covers the other churchthemes.com designs if you change your mind.
Native Church makes sense for a large congregation with a staff member who already knows Elementor. For a church of fifty people with volunteer editors, it is more theme than you need.
FAQ
Sources
- Kadence on WordPress.org and the Kadence Church starter template demo: installs, rating, update date, template pages and plugins. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Church FSE, Rejoice, Cathedral and FSE Church on WordPress.org: installs, ratings, update dates, requirements and theme files. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- WordPress.org review of Church FSE: "Beautifully designed, but a bit maddening for me". Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Maranatha and churchthemes.com pricing: features, plans and prices. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Native Church on ThemeForest: price, sales, rating, features and update date. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Sermon Manager on WordPress.org: closure notice. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Advanced Sermons, Church Content, GiveWP, The Events Calendar, Seriously Simple Podcasting and Embed Plus for YouTube on WordPress.org: installs, ratings, free and paid features. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- YouTube: How to Make a Church Website with WordPress (2025 Tutorial), Elegant Themes
